PREX16, the premier conference for in-house e-discovery professionals panelist Ryan Blackhart, Discovery Counsel at Google discussed collection strategies: collecting to preserve versus preserving in place and shared thoughts as to when to deploy which strategy for meeting the duty to preserve.

In the past, collecting data to preserve it was the norm for most organizations. It was considered the “Better safe than sorry” approach. With sanctions on the line, spoliation was feared. Of course the unintended consequence of this approach is that an organization can over collect data leading to increased cost and risk.

Recently however, preserving in place—maintaining electronic documents in their original location without collecting them—has become a popular choice for complying with discovery obligations.

While this strategy can save costs, it too is not without its detractors and is not appropriate for every situation.